Sallam Alykum, I was wondering when is one truly ready for marriage. Many of you here are married so if you can kindly list the different stages one must reach for marriage; some such as financial backing or educational backing, etc. Basically, what do you think a guy needs to be ready for marriage.

Heres a fun forums game we can play. On paint or photoshop, make a building/house picture in a 80x80 pixel frame. Please post yours and i will add it on top of mine and we will see how far it goes. mine is first i guess Lets try to reach 100 floor building=]! rules - must be 80x80 size <-- Goku

[NOTE: THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN WRITTEN FROM MY OWN KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE. SOME INFORMATION MIGHT BE INACCURATE. USE THIS INFORMATION AT YOUR OWN RISK. AND ALWAYS CONSULT A DOCTOR BEFORE STARTING ANY EXERCISE OR DIET ROUTINE.] Sallam Alykum, I have been obese for most of my life but in the past few months I have changed my habits and have lost over 20 pounds with weight shedding off weekly. I have found a way of losing weight though it is no secret, no pills, no magic formula, or anything like that. It is the only way of losing weight besides surgery and requires dedication and time. It could either take you weeks, months, or years to lose the weight depending on many factors including age, body type, activity level etc. But once you get started, trust me you don;t want to stop. Also please be kind in replying to this thread lol. This is my first article on weight loss. It might not be as organized or detailed as I hope but should be sufficient for general understating of weight loss. I will update this thread with more information Inshallah. Now there are two main principles to losing weight the first and most important is the food and nutrients consumption; the second is exercise. Food and Nutrient Consumption One of the most important nutrient your body needs during weight loss is protein. Protein serves many functions one being the repair of muscle tissue. Now you might ask, why is protein important if I want to lose weight? Well the answer is protein will help build muscle mass (which is a good thing) and also retain the muscle you already have. You wouldn't want to go on a diet and lose muscle mass instead of fat mass. Muscle is very good for weight loss because the more muscle you carry the more calories you body burns throughout the day. Best food choices for protein would be chicken, fish, eggs, and if you must protein powder. Now when dieting, it doesn't really matter how much carbs, fat, sodium, etc you eat. All you need to worry about is calories. Weight loss is simply calories in vs. calories out. I am sure you have heard this before but I will briefly explain it. Calories in vs. calories out means that the calories you consume through eating and drinking verse the calories you burn through your daily activities and exercise. This alone will determine weight loss. If you consume too many calories but do not burn enough, you will gain or simply stay the same weight. If you burn enough calories then you will lose weight gradually. Your body burns a specific amount of calories daily according to it's Base Metabolic Rate (BMR). The BMR is determined by age, gender, height, and current weight. For example, a 20 year old female weighing at 200 pounds and a height of 5'8 has a BMR of 1750 calories. This means that the body needs exactly 1750 calories to function normally for whatever reason including immune system, movements, muscle contractions, etc. If the female eats 1750 calories she will retain here weight if no exercise is involved. If a female eats lets say 2000 calories a day she has an excess of 250 calories. 3500 calories equals a pound. So if the female keeps having an excess of 250 calories, once they add up to 3500 calories she will gain a pound. To lose weight, let's say she exercises and burns 500 calories a day. This means that 2000 calories eaten - 1750 calories for BMR = 250 calories - 500 calories burned will equal the final calorie count of -250 calories. This is 250 calories she has burned, not gained. At this rate, it would take the female 14 days to lose one pound. Because 3500 calories divided by 250 is 14. To lose more weight, she would need to eat a bit less or exercise more or for better results, a combination of both. Here is one website out of many to determine BMR: http://www.bmi-calcu...bmr-calculator/ Now this doesn't mean you should go on a diet which only allows you 500 calories or 1000 calories, this is dangerous and the diet will fail most likely. Eat a healthy amount of calories determined by your age, height, gender, weight, etc. I personally use measuring cups and a food scale to better determine the calories of my food. Always read the labels too. At the end of the day, you shouldn't have a feeling of starvation or hunger. You should feel satisfied with the amount you have eaten. If you do feel very hungry by the end of the day it means you did not eat enough food and should up the calories a bit. You could even eat junk food all day and still lose weight as long as it fits well within the calories in vs. calories out. Though healthier foods do tend to offer more nutrients, more filling, and contain less calories. Exercise Exercise is either the most enjoyable or most despised part of this whole thing. But one thing is for sure, it plays a major role in weight loss right after food and calorie intake. Exercise allows you to burn off calories and also improves your strengths and cardiovascular activities (?). One mistake many people make when attempting to lose weight is only doing cardio. While cardio is good at burning calories and all, you should really be lifting weights. Lifting weights (whether for a guy or a girl) will build muscle mass and also burn calories. Actually most people with knowledge on weight loss skip cardio altogether and just do weight lifting and have successful results. I personally believe that a combination of both aerobics and weight lifting would be the best option. Cardio has many great options including walking, jogging, swimming, hiking, or even going to the gym and using the treadmill, elliptical, stair climber, rowing machine, biking, etc. Lifting has even more options whether it is benching, squats, free weights, resistance machines, or the dozens upon dozens of lifting machines designed to hit target areas of the body. Using both cardio and lifting is the best option. This will burn calories, allow you to gain muscle mass and strength, and improve cardiovascular health such as jogging for longer periods of time. For cardio, you should aim for about 45 minutes to an hour a day about 4-5 times a week. Weight lifting should be broken down into a program of certain body parts on certain days but you should lift only 3-4 times a week allowing the body to rest in between lifting days. Myths: Diet Pills, Sauna/Steam Room One thing you should always avoid are these diet pills! They do not work at all, and even if they did they produce insignificant results. All they do is give you diarrhea (seriously). They cost as much as a gym membership for one month. If anything, they are dangerous. I have personally tried diet pills for a month and saw no results at all in weight loss, the only result I saw is having $40 less in my wallet lol. Another misconception is that saunas and steam rooms will burn fat. This is completely wrong. What these two do will burn water weight. Sure you will weigh less but within a few days the water weight will return. Though they are relaxing and nothing wrong with using them at the end of a long workout.

Sallam Alykum, we had a member by the username of Abd Alghaffar here about a year ago. a really good friend and awesome guy who lived in australia. . i was wondering if anyone keeps in contact with him?

Sallam Brothers and Sisters. I took it upon myself to counter Aqua's Pizza thread with my own. I created two stunning pizza's with non-organic toppings unlike Aqua... well because I'm a beast man and organic is for sissys. The first pizza if made up of black olives, mushrooms, pineapple, and cheddar and mozzarella cheeses with Rogue souse or souce or however you spell it. the second pizza uses same toppings but replaced the pineapple with green pepper and also a different flavored rogue sous. I also used two different doughs... I couldn't make up my mind at the store so had to use them both. so tell me, how do you like? P.S. THESE PIZZA ARE 100% HALLAL I THINK. UNLIKE AQUA'S WHO DIDN'T EVEN STATE IF THEY WERE HALLAL OR NOT.. JUST SAYIN'

http://abna.ir/data.asp?lang=3&id=330501 Sunni mufti and head of the Sunni scholars in France have embraced Shia Islam at the age of 68 years old. He stated that at the age of 68 he is very unfortunate to have being in complete coma about Shia Islam. Sheikh Sankoh Muhammadi is the imam (prayer leader) and head of the Fatwa Center and head of the Sunni scholars in France. Sheikh Sankoh Muhammadi is originally from Cameroon and have spent 43 years in France and holds french citizenship.he is very popular for the number of mosques he has built. Sheikh Sankoh visited the holy city of Karbala recently. He and Sheikh Walid al-Baaj (a Shia scholar) dialogued in the presence of a Tunisian researcher Muhammad Saleh al-Hinshir who acted as translator from Arabic to french. Sheikh Sankoh was very impressed with his visit to the holy city of Karbala. When asked on his impression on Shia Islam, he said that Karbala and Imam Hussain (as) are amazing discoveries for him. He said now he has discovered (in Karbala) the reality of Shia Islam. He said his discovery of Shia Islam liberated his brain, senses and he has become a free human being. He also stated that what he has discovered is incumbent upon him to propagate it to the world that is veiled from this truthful reality. He stated he was in total coma about Shia Islam and at age 68, that is very unfortunate. But now he shall become a soldier for 'Tashayyu' (propagating Shia Islam) to the world and they should inform Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Sistani (Iraq's most senior and prominent Shia Muslim scholar) about his plan. He stated that now he has found true Islam as he shed tears visiting the (burial sites) of the Ahlul-Bayt of the Prophet (sa) in Iraq. He said that the Ahlul-Bayt (as) of Prophet Muhammad (sa) have been concealed from the eyes of Muslims and he visited the holy city of Madina (Saudi Arabia) and did not find them there until he has discovered who they are in Karbala. He was adviced to read and research more about Shia Islam in order to spread the message of true Islam to the world. He replied by saying that he is in need of more books and literature in the french language for him to propagate the message.

(bismillah) Sallam Alykum, I was reading "Muhammad" by Karen Armstrong and she states that when Muhammad (saw) visited heaven on the night of Miraj that Adam (as) was in the first level of heaven, Jesus (as) and John (as) were in the second level, Joseph (as) in the third, Enoch (as) in the fourth, Moses (as) and Aaron (as) in the fifth and sixth, and Abraham (as) in the seventh. Now if some prophets only made it to the first level of heaven, if a non-prophet makes it to the second level does that make him a higher status than the prophet? Wouldn't Jesus (as) be in the highest level as he is regarded as one of the best prophets? How accurate is this if accurate at all? I'd always thought all prophets would be in the highest level... if they don't make it in any levels higher than one than what chance do we have to even make it in the first level?

Sallam Alykum, I need help with controlling sexual desires. I am 21 years old and like many young adults living in the western world it is very hard controlling these sexual desires. I tried everything from praying on time and asking Allah swt to help me, reading dua, listening to Islamic lectures, exercising, fasting, stopped listening to music, but nothing is working... I can control myself for like a week tops but the urge after that is uncontrollable. for example, last week I was doing homework and out of no where sex popped into my head. I wasn't thinking about it or girls or anything before it happened... I constantly do ghusl and ask Allah swt for forgiveness but this seems like it's out of my hands... I try so hard to stop but it seems impossible... help me please.

Why do non-Muslims have a problem with the "71 or 72 virgin" thing in heaven? Heaven is made for pleasure whether it is of food or drink or sexual stuff or even wishing for a sports car or whatever. If the Christian heaven doesn't allow such pleasures what does it allow then?

Sallam Alykum, I have just completed a book "Ali The Magnificent" by Yousus N. Lalljee﻿﻿. This book, as can be seen by the title, is a biography of Imam Ali (as) from the beginning of Islam till the martyrdom of the the Holy Imam. The first 100 pages or so discuss the birth of Ali, his youthful years, his disciple of the Prophet (saw), his marriage with Fatima (as), the battles he participated in, the missionary work he did for Islam, his status in Ghadeer Khum, and where he was and what he did during the last days of Prophet Muhammad (saw). What I loved about this book was that it discussed Prophet Muhammad (saw) as much as it discussed Imam Ali (as) in the first 100 pages. It is as the author was saying that you can't mention Ali (as) without first mentioning Muhammad (saw) because these two were almost inseparable. The next 100 pages or so discuss Ali (as) after the death of Muhammad (saw) and the issue of caliphate and what Ali (as) had to deal with and the battles he was forced to partake in. The book then ends with the martyrdom of Ali (as) and then discusses his virtues such as his knowledge, piousness, and his views on life. The book was very enjoyable to read and the author even used hadeeths to back up some of the points he was making. It gave a fairly detailed description of the life of Ali (as) which only makes you love and respect him more. I would definitely recommend this book to every Muslim and non-Muslim to learn more about a man who not only lived his life to better Islam, but to better humanity also. He was not an Imam just for Shia Muslims, but for all of mankind. He is undoubtedly the best human being to have ever lived after Prophet Muhammad (saw) with such an elevated status that the angels themselves know of his status. I would recommend you buy a physical copy of the book because it is just that good. But if you are unable to then you can read it online for free (The PDF is 100 pages but is still the complete book): http://www.ziyaraat....Magnificent.pdf university.etrat.net/EtratLibrary/Beleifs/AliTheMagnificent.pdf

Sallam Alylkum, could one of the mods please deactivate my account please? Sure gunna' miss this place. Masalama everyone, inshAllah Shahr Ramadan treats you well and remember to not go back to sinful habits after shahr Ramadan ends! p.s. AlAjal! my hotmail email is also on my profile page so when those books are ready you can email me or use the email I gave you.